The Red Scarf
by aquaticderivative
Summary: Yuri/Raven. Yuri meets a vigilante with a red scarf while running from the knights and is plunged into a life dedicated to justice. It's simple enough. Find evil people and kill them. Too bad everyone around him has a habit of making things complicated. Especially Raven.
1. Prologue: The Leering Officer

A/N: This story has been in the works for a long time. It will eventually feature Yuri/Raven as the main pairing. Expect updates every other week. I'd like to thank my two fantastic betas, xXLiquidSugarXx and sarahannmarie, for helping me get this monster of mine in working order.

~P~

Yuri Lowell was fighting off a headache. A dull ache had been building behind his eyes since morning, and he had just about had it. He supposed he was lucky that he and Flynn had patrolled together. If he'd been stuck wandering the streets with some idiot instead, he probably would have a full on migraine.

After shoving some lukewarm dinner down his throat, Yuri was finally able to make his way back to the barracks. The barracks were full of off duty knights, and the sound of their muffled speech created a dissonant symphony to accompany Yuri's headache. He sat down at the edge of his bunk and cradled his head in his hands.

Flynn was lying on his own bunk, which was across from Yuri's. Despite the fact that they'd been roused at the crack of dawn that morning, Flynn was actually _reading. _Yuri could barely keep his eyes in focus, and this bastard was reading like it was no big deal.

"It's nice to see you, too," Flynn commented without looking up from his book. Yuri saw a smile spread across Flynn's face when he peeked out from behind his hands.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't say that." Flynn put a slim piece of parchment in his book before closing it firmly. "You have to patrol the warehouses tomorrow night, right?"

Yuri managed to sit up out of his slouch. "Yeah and all by myself. I wonder if I'll get ambushed this time."

Flynn's smile slipped into a frown. "You're too paranoid."

"Terrence is the one that assigned it. You know he's out to get me."

The thought of Terrence put a scowl on Yuri's face. Terrence was the officer in charge of their unit, and he had a reputation of being disagreeable. Unfortunately, he was usually given the lowborn 'undesirables' to break in. Terrence was a notorious raging drunk, but his 'good blood' made him invulnerable to demotion or dishonorable discharge. Terrence had been stuck in the lowest rank of officers for years. At least the Knight Order had enough sense to not make a belligerent alcoholic into a Captain.

Flynn sighed. "Just keep your cool, Yuri. We'll both get promoted eventually, and then we won't be under Terrence's power anymore. He's just a low ranking officer."

Yuri rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, we'll get promoted _eventually. _Until then I'm screwed."

Another member of their unit, a teenager with a bad set of teeth, walked over to Yuri and Flynn. Yuri couldn't focus enough to remember the guy's name. Randal? Ricky?

"Hello," Flynn greeted the lanky teen with a charming false smile. It was the one that Flynn used on someone he didn't like very much. "Can we help you with something?"

"Officer Terrence wants to see Lowell in his office right away." The ugly bastard gave Yuri a crooked sneer.

A vile remark was at the tip of Yuri's tongue, but Flynn quickly cut in with a wide smile and said, "Thank you for letting him know."

Green eyes shifted between Yuri and Flynn disdainfully before their fellow knight stormed away.

"It's five minutes until lights out! What the hell does he want with me now?" Yuri whispered to Flynn once the unit's suck up was out of earshot. Yuri could feel his headache worsening. He just wanted to sleep.

"You don't have a choice," Flynn said seriously. Yuri could see worry in his friend's eyes.

Yuri got to his feet. "I know. I'll hold my tongue and be respectful and all that garbage," he said as he rubbed forehead again. "Don't wait up for me."

Flynn nodded. "Be careful."

Yuri huffed and gave a casual wave in parting. He could feel blue eyes following him as he made his way out of the barracks. He had been dealing with Terrence's bullshit for almost six months. He had made the mistake of letting the power plays get to him. Once Yuri had shown Terrence how riled up he could get, the bastard had started to focus on Yuri. The officer did everything in his power to make Yuri lose his cool just so Terrence could gleefully dish out a punishment for insubordination.

A wooden door with a worn plaque that read, _Officer Terrence Pavone, _stood at the end of the hallway Yuri was walking down_. _When he got to the door he sighed and straightened his scowl out into a more neutral expression. He couldn't show any weakness to a shark like Terrence least he smell blood and go in for the kill. After composing himself, Yuri knocked on the door.

"Come in," a nasally voice rang out from the other side.

The door hinges screeched as Yuri opened the door, almost causing him to break his façade into a grimace. Terrence sat in an old office chair, a half empty bottle of wine clutched in one of his hands. He was a middle aged man with short black hair and dark bags under his eyes. He gave Yuri a vicious grin.

"Yuri Lowell. What brings you to my office at this time of night?"

"You called me, sir," Yuri replied in a clipped tone and forced himself to salute the man.

"Did I?" Terrence put the bottle down onto the desk. He wobbled out of his chair and gave Yuri a leer. "At ease."

"Is there something you want, _sir_?"Yuri couldn't keep the annoyance from his voice. His headache had entered into migraine territory.

"I want a lot of things, Lowell. I'm probably never going to get most of them. I'm a Pavone. I'm supposed to be on top of the world." Terrence took a step towards Yuri, and Yuri unconsciously took one back.

Anxiety churned in Yuri's gut. Terrence usually mocked Yuri where everyone could overhear, and the bastard had never gone on about himself like this. Yuri realized with a jolt that this was the first time the two of them had ever been alone.

"I'm tired of all these politics. I'm going to get what I want for once."

Terrence lunged at Yuri, and before he could react Yuri was thrown against the office door and had a knife pressed to his throat. There was an insane glint in the older man's eyes. Yuri's head and heart were pounding in time with one another. Terrence was leaning forward.

The shock he had been in lifted in an instant. He punched Terrence in the throat right before their lips met. Terrence gagged and pulled back from Yuri, taking the knife with him. Yuri punched Terrence in the gut and kicked him once he was down. Terrence's hold on the knife slackened, and Yuri tore it from his hand and threw it away.

"Shit!" Terrence rasped as he tried to get up. "I'll kill you!"

The next thing Yuri knew, he was staring down at Terrence's bloody face. Terrence was out cold, and Yuri was straddling him and panting. His split knuckles were throbbing as badly as his head, and he could feel wetness at his throat. He needed a gel. Yuri staggered to his feet, but kept his eyes locked on Terrence's unmoving form. This was bad. This was really, really bad. It didn't matter that Yuri had been assaulted. Terrence was a Pavone. They were a powerful family, and Yuri had signed his own discharge with this. If not worse.

Yuri stumbled from the office. The hallway was empty, and so he began to rush back to the barracks.

Flynn would know what to do. Flynn always knew what to do.

The grunt that had been assigned to guard the barracks was fast asleep, and Yuri found the place quiet and dark. Yuri got to his bunk and dug through his things until he found his stash of apple gels. He ate a couple and sighed in relief. The small cut on his neck closed, his split knuckles knitted back together, and even his headache let up a bit.

Flynn was asleep, and the nighttime light was casting shadows on his face. Yuri hesitated to wake him up. He couldn't expect his oldest friend to smooth talk him out of this one. There was only one thing Yuri could do. He had to leave before he found himself locked in a prison cell.

Yuri grabbed his now disordered bag and pushed a few stray things into it before clipping his bodhi blastia onto his wrist and picking up his standard issue sword. Flynn turned over in his sleep and started muttering to himself. Yuri left the barracks before he gave into the temptation to shake Flynn awake.

~P~

The sun was just beginning to paint the sky in a myriad of colors. Its rays lit up the very top of the city, the spires of the royal castle burning like beacons in the semi-darkness. The beauty and grandeur of the castle seemed like a dream when compared to the grimy rooftop Yuri sat on.

A quiet chuckle escaped the teenager's mouth as a self-depreciating grin appeared on his lips. He had hoped that this morning would never come, but the sun was rising as it always did. The morning was as cheerful as ever, or at least as cheerful as it could get in the rundown Lower Quarter of the city. Yuri knew that expecting the sun not to rise was ridiculous, but it was harder to face the reality that his life was what had changed. His dreams had come crashing down around him the night before.

But no, that wasn't quite right either.

Those had never really been _his_ dreams, had they? They had always belonged to the only person who ever _really _gave a damn about him. Yuri had never had dreams of his own because he had always been so focused on basic survival. When Flynn had told Yuri about his goal to become an honorable knight that could do something about the injustices that riddled their society, Yuri had jumped on the idea. He had agreed with Flynn and had made that his own dream, because what else would he want more than to see Flynn succeed? The thought of battling injustice had sounded pretty good, too.

Last night those dreams had been abandoned. Yuri felt a crushing guilt. He could have just left the office. He could have started yelling and gotten a group of knights on Terrence. Instead Yuri had beaten him to a pulp. He couldn't even remember doing it. Flynn would be waking up right now, and he would soon know what Yuri had done. Yuri had a rising anxiety in his gut that he would have to leave Zaphias. Terrence would undoubtedly seek revenge.

A soft whine interrupted Yuri's brooding. The dark haired teenager glanced over to his right to look at a gangly blue and white pup named Repede. The pup had a nasty scar on the left side of his face, making his left eye unusable. He also held a curious pipe in his mouth.

Yuri gave the dog a shaky grin. He and Flynn had found Repede hurt in a back alley almost a year earlier. They had nursed Repede back to health, and the dog had immediately taken to the two of them. Yuri had missed Repede while he and Flynn were stuck in basic. Repede had taken to following them on patrols once they'd been freed from that particular hell.

Repede got up and rubbed his head against Yuri's side in a reassuring gesture. He whined again, and Yuri's grin grew a little wider as he petted the dog.

"Yeah, I know. Things'll get better," Yuri softly mumbled to himself, looking upon the new morning with a little less despair.

~P~

"Yuri, you need to tell me what's going on!" Flynn's blue eyes were blazing with emotion. Yuri couldn't tell if they were full of worry or anger. He didn't know which one was worse. "You went to go see Terrence, and now they've found him dead! What the hell happened last night?"

Yuri was leaning against a wall in a back alley in the Lower Quarter. Repede silently stood between him and Flynn. Yuri could feel his gut clench at Flynn's words. If Terrence was dead, wouldn't he be the prime suspect?

"I don't know. Terrence was ranting at me. He was out of his mind." Yuri couldn't make eye contact with Flynn anymore.

"He committed suicide, Yuri. They found him hanged at his family's estate this morning. He'd looked like he'd been beaten up. They suspect foul play. There are knights looking for you."

That didn't make any sense. Terrence would have wanted to get revenge on Yuri. Terrence would have wanted to see him in chains. Why would he kill himself?

"I'm sorry, Flynn. I'm going to have to leave town."

Flynn stepped closer to Yuri. "What are you talking about? Our superiors have put out the watch for a man in his late twenties who has red hair. They only want to talk to you to find out what happened in Terrence's office. There was blood on the floor, and you're the last person that saw him. What happened?"

Yuri sighed. "He came after me with a knife, so I defended myself. I ran out of the office after, and that was the last I saw of him. You think our superiors are going to be happy to hear I beat the shit out of an officer?" Yuri wasn't going to tell Flynn what Terrence had wanted from him. Yuri would much rather forget.

Flynn's face shifted into disbelief. "He tried to kill you? Are you alright?" Flynn was looking Yuri over with concern.

"Yeah, he tried to slit my throat, but _I'm fine_, Flynn." Yuri waved off his friend's concern. He was surprised Flynn wasn't telling him off for losing his cool.

"Then tell the knights that! It doesn't matter that Terrence was a Pavone. If he tried to kill you then I think our superiors will understand."

Yuri shook his head. "I can't." He didn't agree with Flynn. From what he'd seen, someone's surname was all that really mattered. "You said they have a watch out on a guy with red hair?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm going to try and find him."

Flynn looked at Yuri like he was insane. "Why?"

"I want to know what happened. Besides, if I bring him in I might get off the hook."

Flynn sighed in exasperation. "At least let me come with you."

"And have you be AWOL, too? No, Flynn, I'm not dragging you into this. I'll handle it."

"If you'd just tell our superiors—"

"_I can't_," Yuri repeated.

A look of resignation crossed Flynn's face. He glanced down at Repede, who was still silently watching the both of them. "Keep an eye on Yuri for me."

Repede barked in confirmation, and Flynn turned around. Yuri could see Flynn's irritation in how he walked, but he didn't have Flynn's faith in their superiors. He was convinced that if he turned himself in, he would never see anything but the inside of prison cell again.


	2. Prologue: Something Good

A/N: Posting a little early because the ESO Beta is this weekend! This finishes off the prologue. Don't worry, the Great Raven will make his dazzling appearance in the second chapter. Thanks again to my two wonderful betas, xXLiquidSugarXx and sarahannmarie.

~P~

Night had fallen, and Yuri was slinking through the Noble Quarter. He had spent the day gathering information. The man the knights were looking for was seen leaving the Pavone estate not long before Terrence's body was discovered. Yuri had a good idea that the suspect was still somewhere in the Noble Quarter since people were whispering about seeing a stranger with red hair dressed in all black.

Repede started growling. Yuri heard the sound of hurried footsteps in the alley he was standing in. He readied his sword, believing he'd been discovered. To his surprise, a nobleman skidded to a halt in front of him. The man's breathing was ragged and sweat ran down his round face and prominent double chin. Yuri realized that the man standing before him was Duke Ian Kerwar, a noble who had been responsible for many of the corruptions that had plagued the Lower Quarter. He was a greedy and terrible man. Before Yuri could sheath his sword, the sound of footsteps filled the alleyway again. These were much slower and softer than the Duke's had been.

"P-please, let me pass!" the Duke gasped out, his beady eyes bulging in his desperation. "I'll do anything, b-but please you can't let him kill me!"

The Duke's heavy breathing changed in an instant. He let out a choked whine as blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. A sword had been impaled through his heart and was grotesquely sticking out of his chest. The blood coated steel glinted imposingly as the life slowly drained from the Duke's beady eyes. The sword was pulled out of the Duke's body, and the nobleman fell to the ground. His murderer was hard to see as he wore all black. His face was partially covered by long red bangs and a matching scarf. Yuri couldn't believe it. It was the man he'd been looking for.

Yuri raised his sword again. "What did you do to Terrence Pavone?"

The murderer didn't grace Yuri's question with a reply. He turned from the alley and started sprinting away. Yuri swore before sheathing his sword, and he and Repede both tore after the bastard. Yuri heard yelling start up in the distance.

The man sped through alleys and passages that Yuri had never been in before. Just when he thought he couldn't run any longer, Yuri found that they had made it outside of the city's walls. The murderer sped into the nearby woods, and Yuri pushed himself to continue to pursue him. They finally stopped in a small clearing which was the first real break in the thick forest they'd come across.

Despite his best efforts, Yuri was leaning over and gasping for breath. Luckily for him, the suspect didn't attack. In fact, he didn't even draw his sword. Repede was panting next to Yuri, though the dog was poised for an attack.

"I spoke with Pavone and convinced him of the best course of action." It took Yuri a moment to comprehend that his earlier question was being answered. "I do wonder why you seem to care so much."

Yuri noted with envy that the murderer was barely out of breath. He managed to straighten himself out before saying, "Let's just say I'm a concerned party. How the hell did you talk Terrence into killing himself?"

The murderer lifted his face from where he'd buried it into his scarf. His mouth was turned downward into a slight frown as his dark eyes focused on Yuri intensely. "He made a grave error in the past that caused me a lot of suffering. I had originally planned to run him through, as I did to Ian Kerwar, but I found him in quite a state. I am a ghost from his past, and when he saw me it was very simple to convince him of the right path." The vigilante took a step forward, and Yuri got ready to draw his sword. Repede growled viciously. "You couldn't have chased me out of the city for only an explanation."

"I was the one who put Pavone in the state you found him in."

Yuri's grip on his sword loosened a little when the man's mouth shifted into a small smile. "_You _are Yuri Lowell? He told me about you and what you did. I owe you my thanks. Because of you his death was much more satisfying than I could have hoped for."

It was hard to tell if this guy was completely insane or not. He was composed and wasn't being hostile. Yuri had a half a mind to attack and try to drag this strange man back to the Capital. He and Repede could probably handle it. Yet, Yuri was hesitating. Terrence was dead. If this murderer hadn't interfered, then Terrence would have gone after Yuri. Yuri had also witnessed the death of someone else who was despicable. Yuri could remember countless times when the people of the Lower Quarter cursed Ian Kerwar's name, and now the nobleman would never hurt any of them again.

"Are you a part of some assassins' guild?" Yuri found himself asking.

The redheaded man's smile fell. "I answer to no man but myself."

"You're a vigilante." Yuri felt a little better at this revelation. Two terrible people were gone, and it wasn't because of money or a guild's agenda.

"Yes, a cold and hungry vigilante who wants to set up camp. If you're finished?"

Yuri looked around the small clearing. "I could lead the knights right to you."

The older man gave Yuri a bland look. "You could."

"I could also stay here." Yuri smirked.

The murderer huffed. "And why would you want to do that?"

"The knights are looking for me, and they won't find me here." Yuri didn't want to go back to the city. Even if he could smooth things over, he doubted he'd avoid a dishonorable discharge. Yuri would rather be a deserter than have to stand at an inquiry full of pompous Captains who would only revel at the chance to get rid of a lowborn like him. Besides, he was curious.

The vigilante gave Yuri a vaguely amused look before taking another step closer. Repede had relaxed during their conversation, but started growling again at his closer proximity. "You would sleep so close to a murderer?"

"I slept in the barracks for months. You wouldn't believe what some of those guys are like."

The older man shook his head. "I won't drive you off. Just make sure your pet doesn't tear me to pieces while I sleep."

"_Repede _is not my pet. He's my friend." Repede stopped growling, though he was still giving the darkly clad man a cold stare. Yuri could only imagine what Flynn's expression would be if he knew Yuri was thinking of throwing his lot in with a murderer.

"You have a name? You know mine already, after all," Yuri asked while the vigilante started digging around in the small bag he carried with him.

The man stared at Yuri for a moment. "Clay," he replied in a flat tone before digging into the bag once more.

"Just Clay?" Yuri asked.

"Just Clay."

~P~

There were jagged walls rising in the distance. This was the closest Yuri had been to Deidon Hold in his life. He was trudging through the wild growth a couple of miles off the main road, Repede walking dutifully next to him. Clay was a couple of feet away. The other man had blended well with the night, but now his dark clothes and crimson hair made him stick out like a sore thumb.

Yuri had decided to follow Clay. He had found that the morning light had done little to dissuade his aversion to going back to the city. The only thing that almost drove him back was Flynn. He would send a letter back to Zaphias and tell Flynn that he was alright. That he'd decided to leave the city after all. Flynn was still in the knights, and he could keep charging forward with his dream. Yuri on the other hand would have to take a different approach.

Clay had been amused at Yuri's insistence to go with him. The vigilante had simply warned Yuri not to get in the way. Yuri didn't plan on it. He could still remember the life draining from Ian Kerwar's eyes with striking clarity. Yuri was admittedly intrigued. A part of him wondered what right Clay had to decide who should live or die, while another couldn't find any real reasons why Terrence Pavone and Ian Kerwar should have been allowed to keep drawing breath. Certainly their depravity far outweighed their compassion. Despite this reasoning, Yuri did have a very specific reason to follow Clay. He hadn't tried to capture the man, but if Yuri saw Clay strike out against someone he shouldn't, Yuri wouldn't hesitate to stop him. He supposed that keeping an eye on a man on a self-imposed crusade was the best he could do, now that he wasn't a knight anymore.

Yuri didn't know if he was making a mistake, but he couldn't stop thinking about one thing Clay had said the night before about Terrence. _He made a grave error in the past that caused me a lot of suffering._

~P~

A year had passed since Yuri had set out with Clay, and the city of Nordopolica was in an uproar. Alarm bells were ringing, and a building in the distance was ablaze. The moon was new, making the city darker than usual and the distant fire all the more bright. Yuri stood calmly by one of the city's many docks, watching the chaos from afar. A small boat was moored behind him.

Yuri and Clay had become friends, of a sort. While watching Clay's actions, Yuri hadn't seen the older man waiver once. He'd taken to helping Clay out. Yuri had seen more good done at the hands of a single murderer than he had in all his life spent in Zaphias. He sent short letters back to his hometown in order to let Flynn know he was still alive and kicking, but he was never in one place for very long, so he had never received a reply. Yuri hadn't been to Zaphias since he left, and the thought of Flynn always filled him with a peculiar guilt that he could not shake. He had found that the longer he stayed away from the Capital, the less he wanted to return.

Yuri was knocked from his introspection at the sight of two men racing to where he casually leaned. Both were brawny and one of them was wearing gauntlets on both arms.

"Hey, you!" The men had reached Yuri. "You need to leave this area! The docks are closed."

Clay had warned Yuri that men might try and block off his escape, which was precisely why Yuri had stayed behind and stood guard over their boat.

"Why are you so worried about the docks? You do know there's a fire over there?" Yuri asked with feigned ignorance.

"Don't be a smartass!" the one with the gauntlets snarled.

Yuri could see there was no distracting them. He pulled his sword from its sheath and attacked the man without the gauntlets with a side slash. He cried out in pain, clutching his side as blood began to flow through his fingers.

The one with the gauntlets pulled back his fist to swing at Yuri, but Yuri smoothly dodged to the side. He countered with a slash of his sword followed by two quick jabs. He managed to scratch the man along his bicep. The man bellowed in rage and began to attack Yuri with quicker strikes. Yuri was hard pressed to dodge him.

A snarl rang out, and the man cried out in pain as he fell to the ground. Repede had taken a large bite out of his leg. The dog had been watching the other end of the dock but must have rushed over when the fight began. Yuri knocked the man out with the hilt of his sword.

"Thanks." He smiled down at Repede.

The man Yuri had slashed at the beginning of the fight was lying down and groaning. He had already lost a lot of blood. Yuri didn't want the man to die needlessly. He had only been doing his job, after all. Clay preferred, if he could, to only kill his target. Yuri thought that was a good creed to live by. He gave the man a gel to stop the bleeding. The man gave Yuri a look like he was insane, but Yuri simply shrugged. Once the bleeding stopped, Yuri hit the man over the head, just as he had done to his partner.

Repede barked, and Yuri turned to look in the direction the dog was facing. Yuri could see Clay bolting down the street, headed straight for them. Four guards were chasing him, and Yuri readied his blade for another battle. Clay turned to face his angry entourage, letting out a shout as he slashed his blade in an X shape in front of him. Red energy pulsed from his bodhi blastia and flew forward in the same shape. The energy blew away two of his pursuers. Yuri got the idea and sent out an Azure Edge. His own blue energy knocked over the others.

"Just like bowling," Yuri stated blandly once Clay was in earshot.

The older man gave him a small smirk. "I see you had company while I was away. It's a good thing you and Repede are here, or I would have had to deal with six of them by myself."

Shouts rose up from the other end of the street, and Yuri saw that one of guards they'd knocked over was getting up again. "We need to go."

Clay nodded, and the three of them climbed into the boat. Yuri started the small blastia run motor, and soon they had entered the ocean, leaving the chaos of the city behind. Once they had gotten clear of the sight of Nordopolica, they maneuvered the boat into the high growth along the coast. This way larger ships would have trouble pursuing them.

"I thought you were usually more discreet," Yuri commented once they appeared to have gotten away.

Clay hummed. "Nigel knew I was coming. I threatened him years ago, and it has taken me all this time to fulfill my promise. In that time, he continued to barter with people's lives as if they were nothing. It shouldn't have taken me so long." He had a haunted look in his eyes.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up. If you hadn't gotten him now, he would have just kept hurting people, right?" Yuri didn't like it when Clay looked like that. It made him think that Clay was about ready to plunge himself into the sea.

"Yes, you're right. I should take my own advice and not dwell on regrets."

They pulled onto shore ten miles down the coast from Nordopolica. They would continue on foot and hide out in Montaic until the city calmed down. They walked in silence for a long time.

"Yuri." Clay's soft voice sounded like a shout in the calm of the night. "Thank you for your aid."

Yuri felt a small grin appear on lips. "It's no big deal. You're doing something good."

~P~

It had been two years since Yuri had last seen his hometown, and it was striking to see Zaphias on the horizon. Clay had insisted they return to the city as soon as possible, and Yuri had agreed despite his apprehension. Yuri was sitting across from Clay in a bustling tavern at Deidon Hold. Uproarious laughter and smoky air surrounded them.

"There's something I need to tell you." Clay was looking in Yuri's direction, but he seemed to see right through him. "Something you need to know."

"Oh?" Yuri raised his eyebrows with faked nonchalance.

"I started my work eight years ago. The man who taught me everything I know about swordsmanship was murdered, and his killer wasn't prosecuted. The killer was a part of a very wealthy family, and so his father was able to bribe the courts."

Clay was silent for a long time after that, so Yuri spoke up. "So, you took care of him?"

"Yes. He was the first man I ever killed. I hadn't originally planned it, but after confronting him, my anger got the best of me." Clay wasn't looking at Yuri at all anymore. He was staring off to the side, looking like his mind was somewhere far away.

"Is there a reason you're telling me this? I mean, it sounds pretty cut and dry to me."

"That man's name was Shel, and he was my brother. The reason I set out on this journey was because I couldn't live with myself otherwise. The first thing my teacher taught me was that a sword is used to protect. I killed someone I was supposed to protect, Yuri." Clay finally looked back at Yuri, an intensity in his eyes that Yuri had never seen before.

Yuri was speechless. A part of him coldly thought that Clay's brother deserved it, but it was quickly overridden by the roaring idea of _what if it was you who killed Flynn? _Yuri abruptly stood up, a nausea running through him at the thought.

"I need some air," he heard himself say before he walked out of the tavern.

Repede stood the moment he exited and followed Yuri to the gate that was positioned in the center of the Hold's walls. Yuri stood there and looked out at the formless black landscape, Repede standing as a constant sentinel at his side. Yuri heard a door close and turned to face the inside of the Hold. Clay had walked out of the tavern and was walking over to where they had rented a tent for the night.

"You've done what you can. You're trying to atone with every action you take, and that's the best you can do." Clay stopped walking, but didn't turn to face Yuri. The distance between them was giving Yuri and uneasy feeling, but neither of them moved to shorten it.

"It will never be enough," Clay said. Yuri couldn't argue with that. "Promise me you won't ever forget what a sword is meant for, Yuri."

"I promise."


	3. One: So Very Tired

A/N: A thousand thanks to my betas, xXLiquidSugarXx and sarahannmarie.

~1~

Yuri awoke with a start. The star filled sky was the first image he saw, the full moon's light bothering his sleep ridden eyes. Yuri felt a familiar presence next to him and remembered that Repede had fallen asleep at his side. The dog had awoken with him, and his intelligent eye now stared back at Yuri. They both knew that something was wrong.

Yuri sat up and saw that Clay was nowhere to be found. The older man did have a habit of wandering off, but his absence tonight left a cold feeling in Yuri's gut. Repede let out a quiet bark, bumping his head against Yuri's hand. Yuri looked down and saw a red scarf lying on the ground. An envelope and Clay's bodhi blastia were wrapped inside of it. Yuri felt his blood run cold at the sight. Clay never went anywhere without his blastia or his scarf.

Yuri quickly reached down and picked the envelope up. It was too dark to read, so he got to work getting the fire started again. Repede lay down by the dead fire, staring at Yuri intensely. After a decent fire blazed in the pit Clay had made only a couple of hours earlier, Yuri hastily sat down and ripped open the letter. Clay's handwriting was shaky.

_Yuri, _

_Over the past couple of years I have trained you in every arte I knew and have helped you hone your swordsman skills. You have progressed beyond my imagination, yet I know that you will only continue to grow as the years pass. I deeply regret I will not be able to see such fantastic progress. _

_I have told you of my duty, a duty that was forged through a bitter anger with my own brother. I have told you about my scarf, a symbol of my pledge to taint my own hands with guilty blood so that I may save innocents. _

_I have decided that my hands have been tainted enough. I am going to turn myself in. By tomorrow morning, my life will be forfeit._

_Do not despair, Yuri. I know that you are angry with me, but I have to do this. I am tired of the life that I lead. My hunger for justice has been long quenched. I can no longer sleep at night, for the faces of the men I've murdered haunt me. I am not that old, yet I feel ancient and so very tired. _

_I have already said goodbye to Repede. He has allowed me to leave, and I know that he will stay by your side. For this, I am truly grateful._

_I know you may never forgive me, but there is nothing else I can do. _

_I give you my blastia so that you may find some use for it, and I give you my scarf. I know that soon you will move past this and begin to rage at the many injustices in this world again. Use what I have taught you and wear this scarf with pride. Your actions will instill fear in the unjust and give hope to the downtrodden. _

_You have an inner fire I never had, and I believe you will never become as tired as I am now. You will never give up, and that is why you are the greatest man I've ever known, Yuri Lowell. _

_-Clay_

Yuri's hands were shaking. He sloppily folded the pages of the letter up and shoved them into his pocket with barely restrained calm.

"How could you let him leave?!" he yelled at the dog sitting on the other side of the fire. Repede did not give any sign of response. "We have to stop him! He can't do this!"

Yuri stood up and was pacing back and forth, his arms waving wildly as he spoke. Repede stood up and walked toward him before letting out a loud and angry bark. Yuri stopped pacing and slowly sunk to the ground.

"Dammit!" he exclaimed in anguish as his whole body began shaking. He hit his fists against the ground before digging his fingers into the grass.

Repede drew closer to Yuri and rested his nose on the young man's shoulder. Silent tears streamed down Yuri's face as he mourned the loss of a man that had truly been like an older brother to him.

~1~

Yuri stayed at the small camp for a few days. He didn't care that he had to fight off monsters after the repellent wore off. In fact, killing the weaker monsters that hung around his hometown was therapeutic. He didn't dare go into the city and watch the execution. There was nothing he could do to stop it, and he knew he'd end up trying to save Clay. He'd only get himself arrested and maybe even be executed himself for trying to interfere. He barely ate or slept for those days, and it eventually fell to Repede to defend the small campsite.

Yuri was sitting in front of the blackened fire pit, his eyes distant. Repede wandered back into the camp and was panting from fighting off another group of monsters. The dog settled down next to Yuri and barked.

It took Yuri a moment to reply, "What?"

Repede barked again and got up before biting down on Yuri's sleeve and tugging on it.

Yuri sighed. "Repede, if you want to go into the city then I won't stop you. Just let me stay here."

Repede started whining and kept insistently tugging on Yuri's sleeve.

"If I go back into the city, I'll have to face Flynn."

Repede let go of Yuri's sleeve and let out a gruff bark.

"I know he misses me. It's just that I'm not going to be able to hide this state I'm in from him. What am I supposed to tell him? That I've been an accomplice to a murderer for two years, and now I'm sad because said murderer got executed. Flynn will probably arrest me."

Repede latched onto Yuri's arm, though he didn't bite down hard enough to break the skin. He started tugging Yuri towards the imposing form of Zaphias on the horizon.

"Were you even listening to what I just said?" Yuri asked in exasperation.

Repede didn't stop, and so Yuri was forced to move unless he wanted to fall over. "Alright, dammit! I'm getting up."

Yuri got to his feet as Repede let go of his arm. The dog barked triumphantly, and Yuri scowled at him. Repede started to nudge Yuri's bag with his nose, and so Yuri begrudgingly went to pick it up and throw it over his shoulder.

"Are you happy now?"

Repede barked and sped off toward the city while Yuri followed at a much more sedate pace. Yuri got into the line outside of the main gate. He had fake papers with him that would let him easily pass into the city. After two years, Yuri doubted that the knights were still actively looking for him. His own desertion and Terrence Pavone's suicide was old news. When Yuri got to the front of the line he was greeted by two of the ugliest knights he had ever seen. One was short and incredibly fat while the other was tall and had ridiculously huge lips.

"Your papers, traveler!" the short one said in an incredibly dramatic tone. Yuri wondered if the knights had turned into a circus troupe in his absence.

He gave the fat knight his papers. The taller one was watching Yuri with narrowed eyes. "You seem familiar."

Yuri would have remembered meeting these two idiots. He shrugged. "I have one of those faces."

The large lipped knight's eyes narrowed completely into slits. Thankfully, Yuri got his papers back before anyone could recall the watch that had been put out on him two years previously.

Walking through the cobbled streets of the city was surreal. He had spent years wandering these streets, and they were almost as he remembered them. The small changes were jarring, in a way. Shops had changed their names, buildings had been remodeled, and the decrees and propaganda posters had morphed to fit the issues of a different year.

What Yuri wanted more than anything was a drink, and so he slipped into the Lower Quarter. He had been completely anonymous in the Public Quarter, but in the Lower Quarter, people whispered as he walked passed. They were a close knit community, and Yuri knew that word of his return would probably reach Flynn's ears within an hour.

He really needed that drink.

~1~

Flynn never came. Yuri spent a month wandering around the Lower Quarter, hopping from bar to bar. He and Repede took up residence in an inn room. The owner was willing to let them stay there for dirt cheap after Yuri saved the man's daughter from some overly friendly knights. Everyone in the Quarter worried for him, and they were also curious as to where he'd disappeared to for two years. Yuri helped them when he could with the decent amount of funds he'd gathered over the years, though he was quickly running low as he continued to binge on drinks. Yuri was completely resigned to the idea becoming another Lower Quarter drunk. He certainly didn't have a desire to do anything else.

Yuri was sitting in a bar in the Lower Quarter, nursing a glass of some sort of alcohol whose name he couldn't pronounce. He wasn't drunk yet and wasn't planning on getting drunk. He just didn't have anything better to do. He felt so incredibly listless.

The door of the rather empty bar opened, and in walked a young blond knight in immaculate blue and white armor. A frown marred his face. When his eyes fell on the scruffy looking Yuri, his eyebrows drew together in obvious concern. It looked like Flynn had finally decided to show up.

"Yuri," he said quietly as he went to stand next to his childhood friend. "I heard that you were back in town. It's been years since we last spoke. I was beginning to think I'd never see you again!" His voice had taken on an angry edge at the end of his sentence.

Yuri didn't even acknowledge Flynn's presence. He simply took a sip of his drink and stared forward with the same tired and bored expression. A part of him couldn't even believe that Flynn was standing there, and another part didn't know how to react.

"Yuri," Flynn repeated. The anger was still in his voice, but it was obvious he was trying to control it. "Please talk to me. All I've gotten from you are a few short letters. You told me you were going after that man with red hair, and then you disappeared! Until I got that first letter from you, I thought you'd been killed!"

Yuri closed his eyes. It was good to hear Flynn's voice. He just wished it didn't make him feel so guilty.

"What's the matter with you? You're drinking like some old man and acting like the world has ended!" Flynn roughly put a hand on Yuri's shoulder.

Yuri set his drink down on the counter with a soft _thunk_. He turned his head towards the blond, and his dark violet eyes stared right into Flynn's own bright blue.

"I'm sorry, Flynn," Yuri said tiredly.

Flynn's annoyed expression softened, and he let go of Yuri's shoulder. "What happened to you?"

"I left, and I saw the world. Now I'm back."

Flynn sat down on the barstool next to Yuri. "I meant what made you like this. I know you can be a broody pain in the ass sometimes, but this is a little different."

Yuri couldn't tell Flynn about Clay in detail, and he certainly wasn't to talk about his thoughts on carrying on what Clay had been doing. Yuri couldn't just leave Flynn hanging, though.

"I met a guy when I was traveling." Flynn raised his eyebrows, and Yuri had to backpedal, "I don't mean it _like that_. He was a friend of mine. He was a little older than us, and he taught me some things."

"You keep saying _was._"

Yuri shifted his gaze away from Flynn and onto his drink. "He died. That's why I came back. Well actually, I came back because Repede dragged me, but you get the idea."

Flynn put his hand on Yuri's shoulder again, except this time it was a much gentler gesture. "I'm glad Repede did."

"I missed your smug bastard face, you know. I thought you hated me since you never came by."

"Sorry about that. I was sent out of the city on a mission. I just got back into town, and I should have some time off now." Flynn gave Yuri a smile and squeezed his shoulder before letting it go.

"That armor you have on is pretty fancy. You're an officer now, right? Please tell me you're a higher rank than that bastard Terrence was." Yuri turned his head to face Flynn and returned the smile with a small one of his own.

"Three ranks higher and steadily rising."

"Good. The Empire will be a shining example in no time."

Flynn chuckled before becoming more serious. "You know, it was a good thing you left. I was wrong about our superiors. Within a day they'd cancelled the watch on that redheaded suspect and called out a full scale search for you. A Duke was assassinated the night you disappeared, and they were trying to blame you for that, too."

Yuri closed his eyes. He had been right after all. Now if only he could go back in time and tell himself this to avoid all of those sleepless and guilt-ridden nights.

"You need to lay low, Yuri," Flynn knocked Yuri out of his thoughts. "Things might have died down, but they could easily get stirred up again."

Clay had turned himself in, but Yuri didn't know if the man had admitted to every crime he'd ever committed. Yuri would have to play it safe, just in case. He didn't want to be hung for a murder he didn't commit.

"I know, I know. You don't have to be such a nag."

Flynn huffed before getting up from his barstool. "Unfortunately, being an officer means filing out a lot of paper work. I have to go get started on it before my Captain has a fit." Flynn gave Yuri another smile. "I'll see you later. Try not to drink too much."

"I would never."

Flynn shook his head. "Don't go running off on another adventure without telling me first, alright?"

"Sure, _mom_."

Flynn burst out laughing before giving Yuri a wave of farewell and leaving the bar. Yuri had missed that laugh more than he'd like to admit.


	4. Two: Up in Smoke

_A/N: Raven finally decides to show up. Also politics! But this wouldn't be tales of without politics. Thank you to my betas, xXLiquidSugarXx and sarahannmarie._

~2~

Yuri was sitting on a wall overlooking the east side of Zaphias. The sun had almost set, and so a multitude of small lights were beginning to dot the darkened cityscape. Yuri was doing better. He still felt Clay's absence like a punch to the gut, but his periodic conversations with Flynn had helped. He felt like he had traded one for the other. At the time of his life when he couldn't stand by Flynn's side, Yuri had Clay, and when Clay was gone Flynn returned as if nothing had changed.

But things had changed. Yuri knew he wasn't the same person that had chased Clay from the city two years ago. He had seen so much death, and yet so much happiness. The smiles of relief when someone heard their tormentor was gone. The beautiful change in a neighborhood once a corrupt leader was disposed of. Clay had been doing what had to be done, and it was a good work.

Yuri had long since torn the letter Clay had written him to shreds, but he had read it so many times in his grief that he had it memorized. The only other written word Yuri had committed to memory was the knights' oath.

_Your actions will instill fear in the unjust and give hope to the downtrodden. _

Yuri knew what he had to do. He would go forward and carry on Clay's legacy. He would just have to remember who he was meant to protect: Flynn and the people of the Lower Quarter. As long as he didn't raise his sword against them with the intent to kill, Yuri believed himself to be in the right.

"Yuri!"

Flynn was standing near the foot of the wall Yuri was lounging on. He was wearing more casual clothes, which meant that he wasn't on duty. Yuri smirked at him before jumping down onto the street.

"Hey."

"I'm glad I found you." Flynn was very serious. "Something has come up, but we shouldn't talk about it here."

A bark rang out in the recently descended night. Repede had been running around in the nearby alleyways while Yuri had brooded, and now he was walking towards Yuri and Flynn.

"You can help me, too." Flynn gave the dog a tight smile, and Repede wagged his tail in reply.

"We can talk in my room," Yuri said.

As they walked to the inn, Flynn kept looking over his shoulder. He gave everyone they passed suspicious glances, even if it was a familiar face calling out a, "Good night, boys!"

This couldn't be good. Flynn had been given a light schedule after his major trek outside of the barrier, and he had told Yuri he was going to spend his free time looking into something unofficial.

Yuri unlocked the door to his small room, and Repede bounded inside before settling down onto Yuri's bed. Yuri raised his eyebrows at the dog before going in himself and leaning against the windowsill. Flynn looked up and down the hall before closing the door firmly and locking the deadbolt.

"Remember how I told I was investigating something?"

"Yeah, and you wouldn't let me in on it," Yuri said begrudgingly.

Flynn gave Yuri a pointed look. "You're supposed to be laying low. I'm only cutting you in now because I need you."

"The Great Flynn needs _my_ help?" Yuri smirked.

"Yuri." Flynn wasn't in the mood to banter.

"Fine. I'm all ears."

Flynn started to pace in the confined space of the room. "There's been a string of blastia thefts all over Zaphias for the past three months. The thefts happen seemingly at random and have affected every class of citizen. No matter how many times the thefts are reported, nothing is actually done about it. No knight has been assigned to investigate. Even when a powerful noble family reports a theft, nothing is done."

Yuri had noticed places where blastia had been absent. Street lights that didn't work. Pollution getting worse. He had assumed it was because the blastia had been malfunctioning. Yuri supposed the Lower Quarter was lucky, for once. They had so few blastia that a theft would be impossible to completely ignore.

"So, why do you need me now? And what's with all the secrecy?"

"I finally got somewhere in my investigation. One of my subordinates had guard duty at the gate, and caught a man with fake papers claiming he was an Imperial mage. He had a couple of stolen blastia on him, and we couldn't find his face in any of the records of Imperial citizens."

"He was from the Union?"

Flynn nodded. "I managed to interrogate him and got him to tell me that he was working for Ruin's Gate. He was a sniveling mess. Kept telling me that he didn't want to die, even though we didn't threaten him with execution. I couldn't get anything else out of him because the third Captain sent out an order for his release."

"Third Captain? Is that still Warren Agrioli? He was in the Council's back pocket."

"Unfortunately, yes. You can see how see how deep this runs. That's not the worst of it, either. I was supposed to have a month in the city before another major assignment, but I got a message earlier today dispatching me to Halure because the barrier is down over there. A much higher ranking officer in the Schwann brigade was assigned to the mission until it was suddenly transferred to me. The higher ups want me out of the city by tomorrow morning." Flynn finally stopped pacing and collapsed on Yuri's bed next to Repede. The dog whined and put his head on top of Flynn's thigh in solidarity.

"You want me to start digging around?" Yuri had to admit that he was angry for Flynn, but he was also intrigued by the situation.

Flynn sighed. "I would rather not ask you. If you're caught—"

"I can handle myself, Flynn. Have some confidence in me." Yuri gave his friend a small smile.

Flynn dug a piece of parchment from his pocket, and Yuri got up and took it from him. Yuri unfolded the note and found a list of very familiar surnames written out in Flynn's neat handwriting. The names _Randell_ and _Furlan_ were circled.

"That's a list of the seven most powerful noble families in Zaphias. The two that are circled are the ones that haven't had blastia stolen from them. Both families have powerful members in the council. If I wasn't leaving the city I would go investigate their main branch households."

"Breaking and entering? How the mighty have fallen."

Flynn gave Yuri a deadpan look. "Shut up."

Yuri laughed. "I have to ask. If I get evidence, there's not much you can do with it. It's not going to hold up in court, right?"

"It won't. But if I bring enough incriminating evidence to Captain Andrey he might be able to do something about it."

Yuri and Flynn had been assigned to Captain Andrey's brigade. Even though Terrence had been a disgusting example of humanity, Captain Andrey had a reputation of being an honest man. Yuri still didn't like the 'might,' though.

"I'll help. If this investigation goes well I might be speaking with the next Commandant."

A wide smile spread across Flynn's face at that. "We'll see about that. First, I have to survive Halure. My unit isn't large enough to defend the town, and I only have a few mages. The higher ups didn't bother to assign me more men for the job."

"Now you're making me want to come with you and watch your back."

"Don't worry about it, Yuri. I have a resourceful second. She keeps me out of trouble. You're doing a lot for me by looking into this. Just be careful."

"What is that, the second time you've told me? I'll be fine. I have a resourceful second of my own." Yuri smirked at Repede, who lifted his head from Flynn's lap and barked smugly.

Flynn scratched behind Repede's ear. "I can't argue with that." Flynn ran a hand through his hair before getting up from the bed. "I have to go and start getting my men in order."

"Good luck, Flynn."

"Thanks. I'll see you when I get back into the city, and you can tell me what you found." Flynn gave Yuri a crooked grin before he unlocked and opened the door. He spared one more parting glance before closing the door with a snap.

Yuri looked down at the list Flynn had given him. He hadn't known what his next step should be, but this was as good as any. He wanted to help Flynn, but he also might find someone to take care of along the way. What better way was there to find the dregs of humanity than through investigating a government conspiracy?

"Come on, Repede. We have work to do."

~2~

A slow ringing started up in the night. Yuri was perched in a tree on the Randell family's estate. There were few household guards patrolling and not a single window of the mansion was lit up. Repede was slinking through the nearby garden.

Yuri hopped down from the tree. It had just turned three in the morning. It had taken Yuri a while to find the main branches of the Randell and Furlan families since there were countless mansions with those family names worked into their gates. He had decided to investigate the Randell mansion first.

The yard of the two story mansion was immaculate, but it wasn't very well lit. Yuri quickly cut across it and shifted into the shadows by a small back door that was probably a servants' entrance. He tried the doorknob and smirked when it was unlocked. _Negligence at its finest. _

The door opened silently, and Repede sprinted from the garden and into the house. He'd let Yuri know if anyone was awake and moving around. A moment later Repede appeared in the doorway and nudged Yuri's leg with his head. The coast was clear.

As he softly closed the door, Yuri was greeted by the sight of an empty kitchen. His best bet would be to find the resident lord's office. It would mean shifting through documents and trying to find hidden compartments, but it was what he'd signed up for. Yuri walked into a huge dining room. The table looked like it could easily sit fifty people. His lip curled in disgust at the extravagance.

Repede stopped walking and lifted his ears in attention. Yuri froze at the sight. Repede turned towards the way they'd entered and let out a quiet growl that jumpstarted Yuri's movements. He rushed from the dining room and into a carpeted hall. He opened the first door he found and slipped into what appeared to be a sitting room.

A couple of moments later, Yuri heard soft footsteps walking down the hall. He hoped Repede had found cover. The footsteps stopped right in front of the door. _The place had been clear! Who the hell was this?_ The doorknob started to turn, and so Yuri pressed himself into the shadows of the room and put his hand on the hilt of his sword.

The door revealed a man who wasn't wearing a guard's uniform. All Yuri could make out in the dim light was long hair thrown into a messy ponytail and a bulky form. The man stopped in the doorway and paused. Yuri could feel the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He could swear the guy was looking right at him. Yuri heard a chuckle fill the dead silent air before the man stepped back into the hall and softly closed the door. Yuri let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. _What had that been about? _Whoever he was had known Yuri was there. He had even laughed at Yuri, but the man had made no move to stop him.

With his sword held close and ready to draw, Yuri stepped out of the shadows. He could give this whole thing up as a bad job and try again another night, but if that weirdo reported to someone what he saw then the security would be a lot tighter the next time. Yuri would just have to press on and keep an eye out for the chuckling nut job. Yuri stopped in front of the door to the hall and listened. When no footsteps greeted his ears, he peeked into the hall before slipping into it. He made a careful dash to the stairs and was pleased when Repede met up with him.

Yuri needed to find the office. He knew it was upstairs from watching the house earlier in the night. He had seen from the tree he had lurked in that it was in one of the upstairs rooms. Yuri stopped short when he saw that one of the doors was ajar, and light was pouring from it. Repede started to growl again. _Just great._

From the cracked open door Yuri saw that the man with the ponytail was shifting through the office. Yuri couldn't believe it. This guy was an intruder, too, and it looked like he was here for similar reasons. The other intruder stopped his digging and turned to face the door. Yuri saw that he wasn't actually bulky but was wearing an oversized coat. He was also older than Yuri had previously assumed.

"Ya comin' in or not?" the man whispered.

Yuri almost fell over. This guy was bizarre.

"Yer pretty shy fer a thief." The weirdo had an accent that Yuri hadn't heard since the last time he'd been in Dahngrest. Someone from the Union was digging around, too. This conspiracy was just getting more convoluted by the minute.

Yuri burst into the room, Repede following closely behind him. "I'm not a thief!" he harshly whispered in reply. "I'm here for the same reason you are."

The insane intruder was grinning at Yuri. "How d'ya know I ain't a thief?"

"There's nothing but paper in this room."

The other intruder put his hand on his chin. "Oh, yer a sharp one. Bit loud, though. Ya gotta work on yer sneakin'."

"I'm loud? You're the one that just started a conversation."

"Ya coulda ignored me, or ya coulda just come in and given me the silent stranger treatment. Ya got the right look fer it. Now I don't know about ya, but I don't got all night." The eccentric man went back to shifting through the desk.

Yuri rolled his eyes. This madman was the one that had started talking to Yuri and now he was complaining about time. Yuri walked over to the desk and saw the man with the oversized coat checking for false bottoms in the drawers. He_ had_ to be looking for information about the bastia thefts.

"I don't bite, ya know. Well, not if ya want me to," he whispered as he looked up at Yuri and wiggled his eyebrows.

Yuri raised his. This was the last place he had ever expected to be flirted with.

"But really, don't just stand there. We can help each other out, one spy ta another." A lopsided grin spread across his fellow intruder's face.

Yuri approached the desk, but the man made no move to try and attack. Repede would have his back if this guy tried anything. Yuri started working through the other side of the desk and smirked when he found a false bottom. A leather folder and a couple of letters sat in the compartment. Yuri pulled them out and put them on the top of the desk.

"Would ya look at that." The strange man grabbed one of the letters and held it close to the oil lamp so he could read it.

Yuri opened up the folder and saw a list of what looked like shipping logs. Weight and number were written next to a name, all of which were strange and probably codenames. Yuri moved closer to the lamp in order to read the cramped writing of the descriptions of what was being shipped.

The man with the ponytail peaked over Yuri's shoulder before chuckling and saying, "Ya found the crown jewel. That looks like a log a stolen blastia ta me. Now look at the signature at the end a this." His fellow intruder shoved the letter he'd been perusing under Yuri's nose. An intricately signed _RF _filled the bottom of the letter. "I'd bet good money that's Ragou Furlan's initials."

The Furlan family _was_ involved in this. Yuri wasn't too sure where this guy had pulled the name Ragou from, though. Repede started growling again. His ears were pressed back, and he was facing the door of the room.

"Looks like our time is up, kid." The strange man put the letter down onto the desk and picked up two nearby books. He set the edges of them on fire using the lamp and tossed them both out of the door of the office.

"What the hell are you doing?" Yuri demanded. This is what he got for trusting some nut job.

"Coverin' my escape." The man broke open a stain glassed door that led out onto the balcony.

Yuri picked the letters up from the desk and shoved them in between the pages of the leather logbook. Smoke was started to pour in from the hallway, and Yuri could hear raised voices in the mansion. He wouldn't be going out the way that he came.

He and Repede went out onto the balcony. There was a large tree nearby, and one of its thick boughs was less than a foot away from the balcony. Yuri could see the insane man climbing down.

"I'll help you, Repede," Yuri told his canine companion. He set the folder down and helped Repede up onto the thick stone railing of the balcony before the dog jumped. There was a moment when Yuri thought he would slip off the branch, but Repede managed to dig his claws firmly into the bark.

"Can you make it on your own?"

Repede barked weakly before starting his treacherous decent. If Repede got hurt, Yuri was going to break that insane bastard's neck for starting a fire in the middle of Yuri's escape route. Yuri grabbed the folder and jumped onto the branch just as an ear splitting cry filled the night. Yuri could see the orange light of flames coming from the office windows.

Both Repede and Yuri made it to the ground safely. The insane man had disappeared but came rushing back around the corner of the mansion. "There's a whole platoon a knights lyin' in wait outside a the grounds! Someone musta tipped 'em off."

Yuri's heart sped up. If he got caught, things would end very badly.

"I got a plan. Just follow my lead," the man with the oversized coat reassured Yuri.

"Why the hell should I do that?" Yuri snarled.

"Ya could do yer own thing, and then we can both end up in a prison cell gettin' our fingernails torn out by some psychopath."

Yuri had little choice but to go along, as knights were approaching them from both sides. "Fine."

"Make like yer gonna surrender." The eccentric man moved closer to Yuri and stood back to back with him as knights surrounded them in a circle. Spears were pointed at the three of them, and Yuri saw no escape.

"You're under arrest in the name of the Emperor!" a well decorated knight proclaimed. He must have been the officer of the group.

"What Emperor? The throne is empty!" Yuri sneered. He had to step back into his fellow criminal when a spear was jabbed at him for the comment.

"Drop your weapons and come quietly!" the officer shouted.

A loud _pop _filled the night, and Yuri's sight was blinded by stinging smoke. He heard Repede whine and was found himself being half dragged out of the midst of the smoke. The man in the oversized coat pushed Yuri towards a tree and began climbing it. Yuri scampered up the side of the tree and hurried to the highest branches. When he made it to the top he saw a haze of smoke and a group of coughing and befuddled knights swearing below him. He noted that Repede had slipped into the bushes and was most likely making his way to the small hole he'd used to get onto the grounds in the first place. The crafty man was a few branches below Yuri.

To Yuri's surprise, no one bothered to look up when the officer ordered his men to search the area. Once the area around the tree was clear of the knights, the man with the ponytail climbed toward the wall surrounding the estate before hopping down onto it and into the street. Yuri followed suit.

Yuri landed in a crouch. The moment he got onto the street a shout sounded at the end of the block. A group of knights had spotted them. The strange man swore and started running, and Yuri tore after him with the folder clutched closely to his side. The knights were right on their heels, and so it took a long string of twists and turns before Yuri finally lost sight of them.

The two of them skidded to a stop in a smelly alleyway in the Public Quarter. His fellow escapee was braced against the stone wall and gasping for breath.

"That was too much runnin' for an old man like me," he wheezed.

Yuri laughed in relief. He had really thought he was done for. Now he just needed to find Repede. "I don't know whether to thank you or call you an asshole."

The older man gave Yuri another lopsided grin. "Ya could say, 'Thanks, ya asshole' and knock out two birds with one stone."

Yuri smirked at him. "You need another look at these?" He waved the folder.

"I've seen enough. I wasn't even plannin' ta take 'em with me. Anyway, it's been fun, but I gotta go. There's more secrets out there just waitin' fer me ta uncover." The man pulled himself up from the wall.

"Wait. You have a name?" This guy might have been a weirdo, but he was a resourceful weirdo.

"They call me Raven. And who are ya, mysterious stranger?"

"I'm Yuri."

"Tell ya what, Yuri. If yer ever in Dahngrest, ask around about me. Maybe the two a us could hook up." Yuri could swear the guy was wiggling his eyebrows again, even though Yuri couldn't make out his face very well in the dark alley.

Raven must have been able to make out Yuri's indignant expression because he started chuckling. "See ya around, kid," was his parting shot as he left Yuri standing in the alleyway with the leather folder clutched in a white knuckled grip.


	5. Three: Helping Hand

A/N: Thank you for the follows and favorites, my lovely readers! I'm quite surprised anyone outside myself is enjoying this ridiculous fic.

Thank you to my longsuffering betas, xXLiquidSugarXx and sarahannmarie.

~3~

Golden light streamed in from between ratty curtains. Yuri groggily cracked his open eyes. He was still muddled from last night's excitement. It had been close. He didn't want to think about what could have happened to him if he'd been arrested clutching the secret documents of a noble house in his hands. He still couldn't figure out how the hell the knights had known. Had someone eavesdropped on his and Flynn's conversation? Or had that man from Dahngrest been the one with the follower?

Repede sniffed at the door before he looked up and barked at Yuri. Yuri got up to let him out, but stopped when he spotted what Repede was examining. A small stack of letters sat just in front of the door of his room. He never got mail. He lifted them up before opening the door so that Repede could leave. The letters almost slipped from his hand when Yuri saw who they were addressed to. Three were written to Ragou Furlan and two to Wendy Furlan. There was only one person who could have slipped these under Yuri's door, and Yuri was uncomfortable with the fact that Raven had so easily found where he lived.

The oldest letter was dated for four months ago, and the newest was only a week old. Yuri skimmed through them and found that Ragou Furlan was the governor of Capua Nor. From the missives it sounded like Ragou had a stranglehold on the town and was quite proud of the fact. The councilman was taxing the people to the bone and claimed to be planning a way to shut down access to the harbor town whenever he saw fit.

Yuri scowled at the papers. Nor had been fine when he had last passed through it, but a lot could change in a couple of months, as Yuri himself had often experienced. The most noteworthy information was subtle, but when combined with the more detailed letters from the Randell estate, Yuri was able to surmise that the majority of the stolen blastia were being moved through Ragou's personal dock.

Flynn had only left a day ago, and Yuri didn't have any reason to stick around Zaphias now that he had so much evidence. He would leave the city, catch up with Flynn, and travel to Capua Nor. Ragou's boasting had made him ill, and he could hardly allow the councilman's gross abuse of power to continue. He could do some more digging as well. The conspiracy didn't end with Ragou. There was still the thief from the Union, and that strange man named Raven digging around in the middle of this. Yuri planned to uncover each link of the chain and take care of anyone he needed to along the way.

~3~

Yuri was a couple of miles from Deidon Hold when he and Repede stopped for the night, and there had been no sign of Flynn or his unit on the road. The world had been reduced to shadows and brilliant flashes of silver moonlight. Stars stretched across the sky, and he could hear the hooting of owls. The fire at the center of the camp burned a brilliant orange as Yuri finished off his dinner.

The hooting of the owls stopped as a sliver of light appeared in the black of the forest. Yuri's eyes were drawn to it in an instant. He grabbed his sword, but hesitated when he saw that the light was a person. An incredibly pale person who glowed silver in the moonlight. Yuri blinked a couple of times to clear his vision, but the tall silver entity didn't disappear. It only continued to glide across the forest floor while making Yuri question his own sanity.

Long silver hair trailed behind the elegant apparition as it walked just outside of the camp. Yuri didn't move a muscle, as the miraculous sight wasn't paying him or Repede any mind. It walked forward with a purpose, its head held high. Yuri noticed that it had red eyes that glowed just as terrifyingly as the rest of it. A heart stopping moment passed before the silver-haired person passed back into the thick woods, their brilliant glow becoming a faint outline in the distance.

Yuri's heart was hammering. This was the sort of thing a merchant in the Public Quarter would rant about after a couple of drinks to entertain their city friends. Yuri had never believed any of those stories about ghosts and nymphs and giant monsters. Yet what else could that thing have been? With the way it had glided through the woods, Yuri didn't even know if it had been corporeal.

Repede was still lying down.

"Did you see that?" Yuri whispered.

Repede stared at Yuri for moment before turning his nose to the sky and barking.

The dull sound of wings beating filled the previous silence, and a wind blew Yuri's hair back. A massive black shape was immerging from the top of the nearby trees and filling up the night sky. Yuri drew in a sharp breath at the sight. It was an enormous dragon and atop its back was the glowing being, dwarfed by the sheer size of the beast it rode. Yuri almost fell over as he tried to crane his neck to keep the fantastical pair in his sight, but in the end they flew beyond the edge of the trees where Yuri could no longer see them.

"Tell me you saw that," Yuri said breathlessly.

Repede whined as he walked over to Yuri. He leaned against Yuri's leg, and Yuri put his hand on Repede's head.

"It's alright. They're gone."

In all the time he'd spent traveling with Clay, Yuri had never seen anything quite like that.

~3~

A tree with luscious pink petals guarded over the sleepy town of Halure. Petals coated the street and the rooftops of the buildings. Yuri was quite sure he'd never seen so much pink in his life. The sun was setting, lighting the petals and the wooden buildings of the town with an orange tint. Yuri and Clay had never actually stayed in Halure during their travels, as the small town was full of gossipers and watchful eyes. Clay had told Yuri that keeping a secret in a place like Halure was impossible, and that if you had something to hide it was best to camp outside of the city.

Yuri was glad to not see the place under siege by a horde of monsters, but he was disappointed that Flynn was nowhere in sight. He had thought that he would have made better time than Flynn. His friend was traveling with an entire unit of knights, while Yuri only had Repede with him. Halure's gossiping locals would come in handy now as Yuri had no doubt they would practically line up to tell a stranger any exciting news about a wayward unit of knights.

As Yuri stepped further into Halure, he could feel eyes watching him. Repede even started growling, though Yuri calmed him with a hand on his head. If Repede scared off the locals then Yuri would never hear the story of where Flynn had gone.

Yuri wandered up to a storefront where a man with messy brown hair and a fake smile waited.

"Hey," Yuri greeted, "I heard the barrier around here was down."

The man's smile morphed into something more genuine. "It was, but this amazing young woman healed the tree!"

_Amazing young woman? _That didn't sound like Flynn. Yuri had a thought cross his mind that something had happened to Flynn and his knights on their way to Halure.

"What about the unit of knights that was dispatched here?" he asked.

"The knights were here. They were protecting us, but there just wasn't enough of them to fight off the monsters with how aggressive they've been lately. Until that young woman cast that miraculous spell of hers, we all thought we'd have to evacuate to the Capital."

It sounded like Yuri wasn't the only one who'd seen something supernatural.

"The knights swooped right in after the tree was healed and carried off that young woman and her mage friend. The whole lot of them were headed west, probably off to Capua Nor. I really wished they would have let her stay longer, we didn't even get to learn her name."

Flynn had gone to Capua Nor? That didn't make any sense. He would have had to report back to Zaphias after finishing his mission in Halure. The mysterious woman that the shopkeeper was raving on about might have had something to do with Flynn's break in conduct.

"Now there's these strange—"

"You have any gels for sale?" Yuri cut in. The shopkeeper was successfully distracted and saved Yuri from gossip about the next-door neighbor and who knows what else.

After buying a couple of apple gels, Yuri and Repede made their way to the inn. The inn was a quaint little building, just as coated in petals as the rest of the town, yet the sight in front of it was jarringly out of place.

A group of peculiar people were having an argument in front of the inn. A sneering man with a green hood covering his eyes stood next to a monster of a man who had a messy mane of brown hair and a gigantic sword strapped to his back. The two were observing a girl with a massive curved weapon yelling at a boy with puffy brown hair. Some of the locals had stopped to watch, as if the group was putting on a show.

"You're finished!" The girl's voice was like ice.

The boy clutched the strap of the large bag he carried with him in a white knuckled grip. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" he choked out.

"The Boss has already decided that you are no longer a member of the Hunting Blades. No amount of whining will change his mind. Now shut up! You're causing a scene!"

The boy was almost in tears. "Please, Nan! I'll do better next time, I promise! Boss, you have-"

"I thought Nan told you to shut it!" the sneering man snapped, stepping forward aggressively.

The other man began to walk away, his steps heavy and measured.

"Come on, Nan, the Boss is leaving," the hooded man growled before storming off as well.

"Nan, please," the skinny kid begged.

Nan gave the sniveling boy in front of her one final searing look before turning around and walking away with the others. She didn't even look back at the boy's loud cry of, "Nan!"

The boy fell onto his hands and knees and began to sob as quietly as he could. The group walked past Yuri on their way out of the town. The large man was expressionless, the hooded man looked pleased, and the girl's face was a storm of emotions.

Yuri had hardly expected to see such drama unfolding right before his eyes. He noted with disgust that the locals were going their separate ways, some of them even stepping around the crying boy as they went on their way. They were probably doing so because the kid and his ex-associates were obviously Union members from their speech and style of clothes. The people of the Guilds had a bad reputation in the Empire, and the stigma against them was so great that the locals weren't even moved by the sight of a crying child.

With a shake of his head, Yuri walked over to the kid. It wasn't often that he stuck his nose into other people's business, but it would be plain cruelty to just leave him like he was.

"Hey, you look like you could use a drink." Yuri almost kicked himself. The skinny boy was hardly old enough for alcohol. This was exactly why he shouldn't try comforting people.

The boy shot up onto his feet the moment Yuri finished his awkward statement. He turned to face Yuri, his large brown eyes glistening. His mouth was moving up and down as if he was trying to say something.

"We could at least get out of the middle of the street," Yuri muttered to the gaping child.

The boy was even more surprised that Yuri was actually speaking to him and quickly turned away and rushed off to hide behind a nearby tree. Yuri resisted the urge to sigh. He should probably quit while he was ahead. He turned away from where the boy was hiding and began to leave.

"W-wait!"

Yuri turned back to see that the child was peering out from behind the tree and looking right at him. "I-I like s-soda," he stuttered as he slowly stepped out from behind the tree.

Yuri almost started laughing. He couldn't believe his terrible attempt at comfort had actually reached the kid. "Sounds good to me," he said as he met the nervous boy halfway in the street.

The two of them awkwardly stood in front of each other for a few moments before Yuri said, "I was going to go get a room at the inn. There should be a place to get food and drinks inside."

The boy nodded more times than was necessary and charged toward the entrance of the inn. As Yuri followed at a more sedate pace, he noticed Repede still lying by the stairs of the inn. The dog had his eye open and was giving Yuri a look that clearly said, "You've got to be joking." Yuri simply glared back at the dog and continued trudging up the stairs.

The jittery kid was standing inside the inn's restaurant and peering at everything. He was biting his lip and clutching the strap of his oversized bag in a death grip. When Yuri entered, he jumped a little and stared at the dark haired swordsman with wide eyes. Yuri couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at the kid and went to go sit at the small bar.

Once the two of them had sat down and the boy managed to stutter out his order, Yuri introduced himself, "Name's Yuri Lowell. You look terrible, kid."

The kid put a hand on his face. "Y-yeah, I know. I-I m-mean, it's p-pretty embarrassing to cry in p-public like that. M-my name is Karol C-capel, b-by the way." The boy had gotten red at the reference to crying in public, though he spoke and acted like he was doing his best not to start crying again.

"Glad I could help," Yuri grunted inelegantly.

The two of them sat in silence until Karol's drink arrived. The bar tender was scowling at the two of them for only ordering a soda. Yuri just scowled back at the man while Karol looked as if he might faint. After recovering from his fear of the bartender, Karol began to slowly start drinking his soda. Yuri didn't want to start drilling the kid with questions, though he was curious. Karol was a bit young to be left on his own, and Yuri didn't want to leave a scared kid from the Guilds in the middle of Imperial territory.

"Are you heading back to Dahngrest? I'm heading over to Capua Nor, but it's just going to be me and my dog, Repede. I could use a little back up and some company on the hike over, if you'd like to come." Yuri and Repede honestly didn't need any backup, but Karol might feel better if Yuri made it out like he needed the boy's help.

Karol's eyes were impossibly big again. He was gaping up at Yuri with the strange mix of terror and excitement that he seemed to regard everything. "I-I hadn't even thought about what to do next, but I p-probably should go back home." Karol scrunched up his face in confusion. "H-how did you know I'm from Dahngrest?"

"'The Hunting Blades' sounds like a guild's name to me. It was a little obvious," Yuri said.

A stricken expression crossed Karol's face at the mention of the guild, and Yuri half expected him to start crying again. Instead he straightened out his expression before puffing up his chest in a ridiculous effort to look confident.

"I would be happy to help you out on your travels. A master swordsman like me will make every battle a piece of cake!"

Yuri fought the urge to grin at the kid, or even laugh. It was incredibly obvious that his arrogant façade was a poor attempt at hiding how completely terrified he was of pretty much everything. Well, at least Yuri would a have a source of entertainment on his way to Capua Nor.

"I'd be honored to have you come along," Yuri replied with a wry smile.

Karol just puffed up even more at the statement. It was getting incredibly hard for Yuri not to break down laughing at Karol's antics. He supposed ridiculous arrogance was better than crying. He could deal with it a lot better, for one thing.

"Now finish up your drink," Yuri said before getting off of his bar stool and leaving a couple of pieces of gald on the counter. "I'm going to go rent a room. You can bunk with me if you want."

"W-wait!" Karol exclaimed for the second time that night. "T-thank you," he stuttered quietly, looking down.

"No problem, kid."


	6. Four: Coward's Honor

A/N: This chapter is the closest this story gets to canon events, so I hope it won't be too dull. Also, Raven will show up again in the sixth chapter, and then he'll be here to stay for a long while.

All my love to my beta, xXLiquidSugarXx.

~4~

Yuri opened his eyes to see the slightly cracked ceiling of his room at the inn. He could hear a soft muttering to his left, and in an instant he was on his feet, his sword drawn and ready. A terrified shriek filled the room, followed by a crash.

Karol was lying on the ground, a heavy book strewn over his chest. Quite a few lose papers were settling on the floor from the boy's fall. Yuri sheathed his sword.

"Sorry about that."

"I-it's alright." Karol slowly got up, pulling the book into his lap. His chest was still heaving from his fright.

"Where'd you get that from?" Yuri found himself asking. As far as he knew, Karol only had one bag. He wouldn't have had room to be lugging a book of that size around with him.

"It's mine!" the boy exclaimed, a wide smile spreading across his face and lighting up his eyes with a genuine enthusiasm that Yuri had yet to see. "It's my Monster Book."

"Monster Book?"

"Yeah, I record all sorts of cool info about monsters in it. I was working on it because I'd been in the Hunting Blades for a couple of months and-" Karol cut himself off as a terrible frown marred his face. Tears shone in his eyes, but he gulped and bit them back. "A-anyway, it's not anywhere near done, but I bet I'll find all sorts of crazy monsters on the way back to Dahngrest." He did his best to smile, though Yuri could see fear hiding in the kid's eyes, probably at the thought of meeting 'crazy monsters.'

"I'm going to go get my sword looked at. You need anything?" Yuri asked as he straightened out his clothes and tried to fix his hair.

Karol mouth fell open in surprise. "N-no. I have enough gels and bottles to keep me going for a while."

"I'll meet you at the town's exit by noon, then." Yuri finished brushing his hair and made his way out of the room.

After having his sword sharpened and buying a few more gels and bottles, Yuri headed to the exit of Halure. The small village was endearing in its own way, but he had to admit that he was getting tired of seeing so much pink and constantly being followed by whispers. Word must have gotten around that Yuri was helping out a Union member, and now the people of Halure were giving him a wide berth.

Repede was waiting for him as usual, but Karol was nowhere to be seen. Yuri leaned against a nearby fence and waited. A half hour later the disheveled boy arrived, panting as he skidded to a stop at Yuri's feet.

"S-sorry I'm late," he choked out. "I lost track of time. I thought you might have left without me." He glanced up at Yuri with wide eyes and a frown, as if he could barely believe Yuri had bothered to wait for him.

"I asked you to come with me. If you'd taken too long to get here, I would have gone back into town and made sure no one had murdered you when I wasn't looking," Yuri replied dryly.

Karol was gaping at him again. As amusing as it still was, Yuri knew it was going to get old fast. It was like Karol wasn't used to being treated with any respect at all. He knew there had to be a _reason _for that, but it was still pretty ridiculous.

Repede walked up to the boy, sniffing at him suspiciously. Yuri knew that his canine companion was none too happy that he'd decided to take Karol along. Repede let out a nasty sounding bark, causing Karol to cry out and fall back screaming, "No! Don't eat me!"

Yuri couldn't help but snort at Karol's antics. Repede walked over to his side and gave a soft bark that was meant to show his complete disapproval of their new companion. Karol had stopped rolling around on the ground and was blinking owlishly up at Yuri.

"Remember that I told you I had a dog?"

Karol blushed furiously before getting up and brushing himself off.

"Karol, this is Repede." Yuri motioned between the two of them. Repede let out another annoyed bark at the boy that had him jumping back in fear.

Yuri resisted rolling his eyes. "We need to get over to Capua Nor as soon as possible," Yuri told Karol as he began to make his way out of the village.

Karol scurried to keep up with Yuri's longer strides. "Wh-why are you going to Capua Nor? There's not much there, unless you're looking to cross over to Tolbyccia."

"I need to give something to a friend of mine. I might do some digging around too."

"Digging around? What are you investigating?"

"Imperial secrets." Yuri gave Karol a mischievous smirk.

"I'll do my best to help you investigate! I'm good at stuff like that!" Karol puffed his chest out again.

"I bet you'll be a great help."

Karol beamed up at him, and Yuri's smirk morphed into a small smile of his own.

~4~

Yuri, Karol, and Repede had managed to make it all the way to Ehmed Hill without too much incident. The few monsters they'd run into had been easy enough for Yuri and Repede to take care of. Karol had mostly hung back in battle, and Yuri imagined he was very lucky Karol hadn't run off. Karol had used the excuse of collecting information for his Monster Book to stay back, using magic lenses to better analyze the relatively weak creatures.

Yuri could understand why Karol seemed so used to other people's disdain. Cowards were never given honor. In his opinion, it wasn't that big of a deal. Repede and he were perfectly able to handle most anything that got thrown at them, and Karol was still just a kid. Yuri had a pretty good feeling that he'd grow out of it.

When the two of them entered the pass, a raging cry rang out. Yuri's heart almost stopped, as the sound reminded him of the roar of the dragon he'd seen outside of Deidon Hold. A much smaller dragon than the beast Yuri had seen swooped down from the sky. Yuri saw a flash of white at the monster's back before a spear flew through the air. It hurled towards the barrier blastia before an explosion rocked the area.

The world was reduced to a high pitched ringing and a spinning blur. Yuri slowly got up from the ground as his senses came back to him. Karol had been thrown farther back than him and was knocked out while Repede whimpered nearby.

The barrier blastia was shattered into pieces. It lay across the road, the massive structure blocking further progress. Yuri didn't understand. Why would anyone destroy a barrier blastia? It made even less sense that the vandal had been riding on a dragon, but Yuri had a feeling this might have something to do with the glowing creature he'd seen wandering the woods.

Karol started to groan, effectively knocking Yuri out of his daze. After seeing that Repede was alright, Yuri went over to help Karol up.

"Wh-what happened?" Karol appeared to be unhurt.

"Someone just destroyed the barrier blastia."

"Wh-what?" Karol's eyes widened as he saw the wreck. "How are we going to get past?"

"We'll have to go the long way around." Yuri motioned to the surrounding forest.

"B-but there's monsters in there. Really, _really_ big ones."

Yuri shrugged. "You can head back to Halure and wait for this to be cleared away if you'd like."

"N-no! I'll go!"

"After you." Yuri motioned to the woods, and Karol glanced between Yuri and the trail nervously before charging into the tree cover.

"Why would someone destroy the barrier?" Karol spoke up after a long stretch of silence that had been blessedly free of monster attacks. Repede had gone deeper into the woods, probably looking for dinner.

"It might have been a member of an anti-Imperial group." Yuri had heard about them when he was traveling with Clay. Most of them depended on terror tactics to undermine the government, with little regard for who was hit by the collateral. A group like that might have been involved, but Yuri was mostly putting out the theory because he still wasn't sure how much of what he's seen outside of Deidon Hold was real.

"I saw a group rallying about that in Dahngrest, there was this Krityan guy leading it. Th-they were all so angry." Karol shivered at the memory. "Before they could start anything, a group of Altosk agents came and arrested a bunch of them."

"A Krityan?" Yuri had seen a few members of the strange race in Zaphias. They had been mages and scholars and curious tourists. They had all appeared to be as harmless as a rabbit.

"Yeah, he started talking about blastia right before Altosk showed up. He said they were evil."

"The guy was probably just a nut job."

Before Karol could reply, Repede came charging out from some of the heavier tree cover. He growled viciously and turned around, his dagger held in his mouth. A swarm of large bugs came flying after him, swooping down and trying to hurt the dog.

Karol let out a terrified cry at the sight of the bugs and looked about ready to run. Yuri drew his sword, and he and Repede made quick work of the swarm, a small pile of gruesome bug carcasses lying around them.

A ferocious growl rang out as a black wolf type monster burst from the underbrush, jumping for Yuri's neck. Before him or Repede could do anything, a large, red, and broken sword came down upon the monster, killing it instantly. Karol was holding the massive half-sword, panting slightly. His eyes were wide, his face was pale, and his legs were shaking uncontrollably.

"Nice going!" Yuri's praise was completely genuine this time. "I would have been dead."

Karol composed himself, awkwardly cleaning the broken sword before putting it back into the bag he carried with him.

"I-I…" Karol was floundering again, though he did look much less pale. "I've n-never done that b-before," he muttered to himself, staring at the ground with slightly furrowed eyebrows.

"We should keep moving." Yuri didn't want the kid to have a breakdown in the middle of monster infested territory. He also really didn't want to think about the implications of Karol saving his life.

The two of them continued in silence for a while, only running into a couple more battles, none of which included any more bugs. Repede stayed by Yuri's side regardless, not wanting to risk getting overtaken again.

The three arrived in a large clearing that was suspiciously empty. Repede let out a growl as they entered it. Before they could make it to the other end, a wolf type monster with red paws appeared on the ledge next to the clearing, snarling imposingly. It was massive and stood almost as tall the surrounding trees. The monster jumped down, effectively blocking their exit.

Yuri and Repede pulled out their weapons and got into battle stances, Karol only hesitating slightly before following suit.

The monster charged, its fangs shining in the afternoon light as it lunged for Yuri. He dodged and made a shallow cut along the monster's side. This only made it angrier, and it swept a massive paw at Repede. The dog didn't jump away in time and was knocked back with a pained yelp. Yuri weaved his way past deadly claws and fangs to try and help Repede.

Karol was doing his best to distract it, though from his badly shaking knees Yuri highly doubted he'd last much longer. Yuri reached Repede as the dog managed to drag himself back onto his paws. Yuri slipped the dog the gel he'd gotten out and then immediately jumped back into the fray.

A bloody gash decorated the monster's face after it suffered a hit from Karol. It was even angrier than before and roared ferociously at him. Karol dropped his sword and bolted.

Yuri succeeded in making a deep slash across the monster's left hind leg, effectively drawing its attention away from the retreating boy. Repede had jumped back into the battle, and now the two of them did their best to finish the creature off.

Repede slashed it near its neck but was trampled on for his success. Yuri was too busy dodging the monster's wild tail to help the dog out. He hoped that Repede would be alright.

Yuri dodged long enough for the huge wolf to begin to slow down because of its wounds. He fired off three Azure Edges at the monster, hoping to push it to its last legs. The blue masses of energy broke through the monster's defenses, two of them hitting their mark.

When the break in the monster's defense showed itself, Yuri charged forward and thrust his sword into the monster's heart. The creature gave out one final snarling breath before falling over.

Repede walked over and barked roughly. He was visibly panting, and Yuri handed him a gel before taking a few himself. He felt the exhaustion of battle recede immediately.

Yuri went over to the monster and pulled his sword out of its body, doing his best to not get too much blood on himself. After cleaning and sheathing his sword, he walked over to where Karol's discarded weapon lay. Yuri found that he couldn't pick the broken sword up with one hand, and it was still incredibly hard with two. He was honestly surprised at how physically strong Karol had to be in order to lug around something so heavy.

Repede let out another rough bark, motioning with his head to a path that led up the hill. Yuri abandoned the sword where it lay to follow Repede's instructions, and soon found himself faced with a gorgeous view.

The ocean stretched on before him, glistening in the late afternoon light. The hill broke off into a steep cliff face, giving anyone who stood upon it a great viewing point. The beauty of it was somewhat ruined by the soft sniffling he could hear off to his left.

Karol was sitting near the edge of the cliff, his knees drawn to his face. He was shaking and crying quietly. When Yuri got close to him, the boy visibly stiffened, almost as if he expected to be hit. When no blows came upon him, Karol turned around to face Yuri.

"You alright?" Yuri asked awkwardly. He really hated it when people started crying on him.

Karol's glossy brown eyes widened at Yuri's question. "Y-you're a-asking if I-I'm alright? Y-you're the one that n-nearly died because I'm useless!" Karol's voice was cracking.

Yuri honestly hadn't understood why the boy was crying until then. "You think I'm mad that you bailed out? I'm more surprised that you didn't do it earlier. Besides, don't you think doing one heroic deed a day is enough?"

"H-heroic!" Karol's eyebrows drew together. "You could have died! And I would have just been sitting here! Why aren't you angry at me?!" Karol flew up from where he sat, both of his hands clenched into fists.

"You saved my life once today. I just returned the favor. Anyway, I'm fine, and so is Repede. We can handle things on our own." Yuri waved his hand dismissively.

Karol didn't protest anymore as he stared down at his feet.

"You might want to go get your sword. It's too heavy for me to lug over here," Yuri commented after a moment of silence.

Karol jumped out of his reverie and gave Yuri another look like he could barely believe that Yuri was real, before he rushed back down the hill.

"What are we going to do with him?" Yuri asked Repede in exasperation.

Repede let out an annoyed growl in reply, letting Yuri know that Karol was solely his problem.

"Thanks buddy," Yuri drawled sarcastically.


End file.
